'Another Thing': Obie The Dachshund's Big Slim-Down

Each week, All Things Considered and Lenore Skenazy, author of the book and blog Free-Range Kids, bring you "Another Thing," an on-air puzzle to test your cleverness skills. We take a trend in the news and challenge you to help us satirize it with a song title, a movie name or something else wacky.

This week's challenge: The owner of a 77-pound dachshund named Obie is blogging about her efforts to slim him down by 40 pounds. If she succeeds, we can probably expect a book.

What will be the name of a best-selling diet book for dogs?

Submit your entry using the form below or by sending your answer with your name, address and phone number to anotherthing@npr.org. If submitting via email, please type "Doggie Diet" in the subject line.

Entries are due by 12 noon EDT on Sept. 19. All entries become property of NPR, which reserves the right to edit them. Entries submitted as comments on this Web page cannot be considered. In the case of several similar entries, the first one received gets credit.

The winner will be announced on All Things Considered on Sept. 24. The first-prize winner will receive an NPR mug.

Last week's challenge: What will be the name of the first chain restaurant in outer space?

Winner: "The Zero G's-cake Factory," Robyn Schrager, St. Louis

Runners-Up:

"A-pollo 13," Lark Reynolds, Simpsonville, S.C.

"The Abdominal Strain," Robert Cooper, Barrington, R.I.

"Salad Bar Galactica," Andrea Roth, Santa Cruz, Calif.

Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Last week, we launched a humor contest here at ALL THINGS CONSIDERED called Another Thing Considered, Another Thing for short, with contest queen Lenore Skenazy. Lenore joins us now from New York. And, Lenore, we asked listeners to submit funny answers to a specific question and remind us what that question was.

LENORE SKENAZY: Oh, sure, Audie. It was: In light of the upcoming boon in space travel, what will be the name of the first chain restaurant in outer space?

CORNISH: All right. How many entries did we get?

SKENAZY: Amazingly, Audie, we got exactly 2,001.

CORNISH: Seriously?

SKENAZY: No.

CORNISH: OK.

(LAUGHTER)

SKENAZY: It's a humor contest. Now, we've got about 1,700. And do you mind if I read them all to you? I love them.

CORNISH: Aha. All right. Well, didn't anyone pay homage to the astronauts? I mean, with Neil Armstrong's death still in the news.

SKENAZY: Yeah. There was one entry, one small step for man, one giant leap for manwich.

CORNISH: Oh.

SKENAZY: And then there's a play on the restaurant El Pollo Loco. It's A-Pollo 13, sent in by Lark Reynolds of Simpsonville, South Carolina.

CORNISH: Ooh. So, is that the winner?

SKENAZY: Runner-up. But really, it was so hard to choose. Another runner-up was Robert Cooper of Barrington, Rhode Island, who sent in The Abdominal Strain.

CORNISH: Oh. No faith in the future of fast food, huh?

SKENAZY: That's what happens when you eat too many moon pies. For you alien fans, there's Five-Eyed Guys. That was my son's favorite. And from a Santa Cruz gal named Andrea Roth, there's Salad Bar Galactica.

CORNISH: Aha. OK. So - and the winner?

SKENAZY: The winner is...

(SOUNDBITE OF DRUM ROLL)

SKENAZY: ...Robyn Schrager of St. Louis who sent in The ZERO G's-cake Factory.

(LAUGHTER)

CORNISH: OK. So did she get an NPR mug?

SKENAZY: Oh, she does indeed.

CORNISH: So with one week settled, what's our quiz for listeners to play next week?

SKENAZY: I was just reading The Daily News that there's a 77-pound dachshund named Obie - he looks like a manatee - who just got his own blog. You know, I mean, his owner started a blog about him that will chronicle her efforts to help him slim down by 40 pounds. And if it works, do I ever predict a book contract?

CORNISH: Of course.

SKENAZY: Of course. So this week's Another Thing question is...

(SOUNDBITE OF TRUMPET)

SKENAZY: ...what will be the name of a best-selling diet book for dogs?

CORNISH: All right. And again, send your answers to us at anotherthing@npr.org by Wednesday at noon, Eastern Time. Don't forget to include your address.

SKENAZY: OK. And the winner, of course, gets a mug or maybe an ALL THINGS CONSIDERED doggie dish so your overweight hound can lap it up. And again, that's anotherthing@npr.org. Don't make me beg.